What is the biggest problem facing mankind when studying mask aligner?

Our country has been coming, and the pressure has been great. News such as technical blockade doesn't look like news at ordinary times, but it's all old news. At present, the technology of mask aligner has the most say in the Netherlands. If we can cooperate with it, it will accelerate the process of chip research in China. But the cooperation between countries is not simple. Due to the oppression of the United States, related technologies were blocked to death. Therefore, China's investment is very strong, but without the corresponding technology, even manufacturing projects are difficult to start. It is not a miracle to strive for a breakthrough, but it is difficult to take the first step before you fully understand the other party's system.

There is no reference. In recent years, the rapid development of China actually comes from imitation after early introduction, but since China has fallen behind in this field for decades, how can it develop without reference materials? It is difficult to go from a blank sheet of paper to a wonderful two minutes, and it is even more difficult to "break the world alone." Lithography is not a technology, but a polymerization technology. A mask aligner in ASML has about 80,000 parts, and the related technology is also the joint result of many scientific research companies. Some people describe ASML and mask aligner as a collection of highly intelligent works of human beings, even works of art itself. What kind of technology company to cooperate with is only one aspect of contact, which has little effect on the products of this technology collection.

The reason why technology is difficult to break through is that mask aligner's research is very difficult, and the advanced mask aligner can't be done by one country, which greatly pokes the soft spot of China's chip industry. In other words, under this development difficulty, if China wants to realize the safety and controllability of its own chips, domestic mask aligner must overtake along the curve.

It is necessary to break through the monopoly of advanced mask aligner related technologies. ASML, the Netherlands, was founded in 1984 with a history of 36 years. In the past 30 years, mask aligner-related technologies have been firmly tied to ASML's imports, forming a monopoly trend in the technical field. How difficult will it be for China's lithography enterprises to break through the technical barrier of blank intermediate layer and avoid the patents owned by ASML? China started relatively late in the field of lithography, and the blockade of the United States made the development of the industry more tortuous. If one day, China makes a breakthrough in the field of high-end lithography, the United States is the most vigilant. Huawei in China is the most obvious and practical example.